


One Step Closer

by twilightscribe



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Complete, Drabble Collection, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-11
Updated: 2013-06-11
Packaged: 2017-12-14 15:31:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 3,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/838497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twilightscribe/pseuds/twilightscribe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thirteen drabbles for Steve/Tony.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. i don't hear a sound

**Author's Note:**

> For the now defunct **13drabbles** 's gamma theme. Titles are taken from _Echo_ by Jason Walker.

Learning how to dance with Tony was, to put it bluntly, something of an adventure. The extent of Tony's dance skills was swaying on the spot in vague time with the music. And then he got irritated – which Steve thought was cute since it was more exasperated irritation than actual irritation – and his face would scrunch up in a rather adorable little frown.

It was a learning process for the both of them. Tony pulled up all sorts of videos and technical schematics (most of which he probably had devised himself) and tackled it like any problem to be solved.

Natasha caught them at it, rolled her eyes, and gently elbowed Tony in the side, taking up his position, “It's like this, Stark. Watch carefully. Captain, you lead, I'll follow. We'll keep things simple.”

“Oh, uh, right.”

Steve took a couple of steps forward, remembering the basics that he'd picked up from the videos Tony had showed him. Despite his halting movements, Natasha was all grace and fluidity, easily floating as she followed; she made it look easy.

“That's right,” she said. After a few more paces along the floor, the two of them broke apart when Natasha deemed Steve good enough. She added, “You just need to work on your confidence. Dancing really isn't as hard as you think of it; think of it... like sparring.”

Tony frowned, “You want to give him another reason to throw me on my ass?”

There was a glimmer of amusement in Natasha's eyes, “You need a firm but flexible frame to fight; it's the same in dancing. You must be firm in your stance, but flexible enough to be able to lead your partner successfully and to follow your partner. Once you have the basic stance down, everything else is easy.”

From there, Natasha guided them both back out onto the floor, nudging them into position. Then, she went about fixing their form with a poke and a prod here and an adjustment there until she judged them perfect.

“Alright, now walk. And remember, keep your frame strong but flexible.”

It went much better this time. Tony quipped, “You make an excellent dance teacher, did anyone tell you that? Did they teach you how to dance in your top secret spy-assassin classes in between learning how to kill someone with your toes and infiltrating Forbes 100 companies?”

Natasha rolled her eyes and gave one of those small, enigmatic smiles of hers, “Phil taught me, actually.”

“What? He's got time to dance? I thought he was all business all the time; the man never sleeps – he's an android that SHIELD built in their basement.”

“Tony.”

“Fine, fine, I get it; you're on her side and I should shut up now – oh but hey, you're a lot better now and not stepping on my feet all the time.”

“Confidence.” Natasha smiled and turned to leave, “I assume you can work out the rest on your own; I'll come back if you need more help.”

She strode out of the room with confidence and her usual grace in her stride, disappearing down the hall. There was silence left in her wake apart from the soft sound of music coming from the speakers.

The two of them danced in a small circle before Steve decided to try and execute one of the dips he'd seen. With how Natasha had explained it, it seemed much less daunting than it had before. He managed to pull it off despite Tony's surprise and slight stumbling over the moves.

He stole a kiss before he let Tony up, grinning when he saw that faint dusting of pink in Tony's cheeks that was so hard to put there.

“Thank you,” Steve said, smile replacing his grin. He wasn't just thanking Tony for the dance and they both knew it. Tony smiled back, words not needing to be said; he knew.

**FIN.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt:** 09\. dance  
>  **Words:** 634 words


	2. where the world is

The arc reactor threw a soft, blue light over everything, casting shadows that Steve watched when he couldn't sleep or he'd woken from a nightmare. He'd watch the steady rise and fall of Tony's chest as he breathed and how the light from the arc reactor threw everything into sharp relief.

At first, Tony had refused to fall asleep without a shirt or a heavy sheet over himself to hide the light. It was something of a combination of self-consciousness since his chest was a spider-web of scars with the arc reactor at the centre, and not wanting to bother Steve. Steve, for his part, didn't mind either; he thought that the scars were beautiful in their own way – they showed that Tony was a survivor – and the arc reactor a symbol of his genius and what he had managed to accomplish.

Steve thought Tony was beautiful. That took a long time to really sink in. Steve didn't mind.

Tony was curled up to his chest, the arc reactor shining its blue light between their bodies, with his head resting on Steve's shoulder. Gently, Steve brushed back a stray lock of hair and smiled when Tony snuggled closer. He pulled Tony a little closer and pulled the blankets up over them.

With the soft whir of the arc reactor and steady sound of Tony's breathing in his ears, he let his eyes close and slept. He'd let them chase the nightmares away.

**FIN.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt:** 03\. glow  
>  **Words:** 240 words


	3. miss it now

It was hard to ignore all of the eyes on them when they went out. No matter where they went, there was always someone who stared at the two of them blatantly because that was _Tony Stark_ and _Captain America_. The kids Steve didn't mind so much and he actually liked it when they nervously came over, asking questions or for an autograph or for a picture. That he didn't mind.

Nor did he mind the people who came up to them with tears in their eyes and wanting to thank them for something. The veterans were particularly nice too, Steve liked them.

The ones that bothered him were the ones that just stared at them with the same look in their eyes. It got worse when they were out together. They would just sit and stare, usually at Tony, with a look of greed in their eyes. More often than not, they wouldn't do anything, but some of them were braver than others and would make a pass.

But he'd grit his teeth and, very pleasantly, remind them that he was there too. Usually that worked to dissuade them. If not, than Tony had a sharp remark to send them running with their tails between their legs.

**FIN.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt:** 06\. avarice  
>  **Words:** 205 words


	4. out on the edge

It could not be this hard; it was just like chemistry. Okay, so maybe it wasn't _exactly_ like chemistry, but it was close enough and besides that wasn't important!

The main problem that Tony had discovered was that while baking was indeed a lot like chemistry, the finer details were a little bit different. Even though he was sure that he'd followed the recipe perfectly, the pie that he'd attempted to make hadn't turned out well at all.

In fact, the pie looked lumpy and the crust was badly undercooked because it was sagging and half of it had caved in on the filling. The pie didn't even look all that appetizing and the kitchen was full of smoke.

There was still time for him to hide the evidence of his failure. If he hurried, he could chuck the entire thing in the trash can or incinerate it or maybe he could –

“Tony, are you alright?” Steve poked his head into the kitchen. His nose was wrinkled up from the smell of the smoke.

Tony flailed for a moment, jumping between Steve and his failed attempt at making what he knew as a fact to be Steve's favourite dessert. He didn't quite manage to hide the disaster he'd made, “What? I'm fine; there's absolutely nothing wrong with me as you can see and just ignore the smoke I think Clint forgot something in the oven and I might have not noticed that but no I'm alright.”

Steve's eyebrows were in his hairline by that point and clearly Tony had set off his internal Tony-is-bullshitting-me metre. But he didn't say anything, just managed a smile and said, “Well, okay, if you say so. Do you need any help cleaning up?”

“No, no I've got it you go do stuff like team-bonding exercises or whatever it is you do all day.”

There went the eyebrows again. Tony could swear that someone out there was laughing at his misfortune, what had happened to his life that he was reduced to this?

“You sure?”

“Yes I'm sure, now go be ridiculously good-looking and patriotic somewhere.” Tony waved him away, making sure to keep his disaster of a pie hidden. He managed to chase Steve out and turned back to it and sighed before scraping it into the trash can and setting the pan in the sink with everything else.

Back to the drawing board _again_.

**FIN.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt:** 13\. desserts  
>  **Words:** 391 words


	5. screaming my name

The sound of Steve's heartbeat is reassuring. It's slow and even and the sound of it fills Tony's ears when he lies with his head resting on Steve's chest.

Tony knows that his own heartbeat is a little frantic and maybe a little uneven; that's the price to pay when there's an arc reactor keeping shrapnel away from your heart. The first week or so was rough, his body having to adjust to having that inside of it.

But he's seen the records. He knows that Steve's heart didn't always beat like this – strong and sure. There used to be a flutter, it used to beat weakly. The serum changed all of that, made Steve into the specimen of human perfection that he is now.

And if it wasn't for that heart, if it wasn't for the serum, he wouldn't be here with Tony now. His heart wouldn't be there to beat it's slow and sure rhythm that eventually lulls Tony to sleep.

**FIN.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt:** 08\. heartbeat  
>  **Words:** 161 words


	6. hello, hello

There were a couple of things that Steve needed to adjust to. For one, the fact that Tony came to bed at strange hours of the night meant that he always woke Steve up (“I'm a light sleeper.”). Although, Steve didn't mind that. He'd just roll over and curl up around Tony, which meant that Tony wouldn't be getting up anytime during the night without waking Steve.

He slept better knowing that Tony was there and he could hold him, know he was there and feel the rise and fall of his chest. The glow of the arc reactor and steady, if faint, beat of Tony's heart enough to lull him into sleep and keep the nightmares at bay.

Sometimes that wasn't enough, but Steve wasn't sure he was ready to talk about it. There were things Tony didn't either.

Those were things that woke Tony in the middle of the night, a scream on his lips and in cold sweats. He'd sit straight up, panting and staring unseeing at the wall. Steve just placed a hand at the small of Tony's back, then pulled him close when the shaking started.

Neither of them were perfect. There were problems and wounds that needed to be stitched up, but they would survive. They'd made it this far. And, besides, neither of them were the kind to just give up.

**FIN.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt:** 05\. quirky  
>  **Words:** 224 words


	7. anybody out there

“You wanted to show me something?” Steve asked.

Tony looked up from his work bench, hair sticking up and grease smeared down his cheek. He looked exhausted with his wide eyes that had dark circles under them, but his smile when he spotted Steve was genuine.

“Yeah, c'mere,” Tony popped onto his feet, bouncing like he was a small child on a sugar high. He'd already started on a long technical ramble when Steve walked over, backing slowly toward a corner of the workshop.

Steve couldn't understand most of what Tony was talking about, but he did pick out a few things so that he could follow the general gist of it. Still, most of the technical details went right over his head.

“... it took longer than I thought it would, but I finished it last night – was it last night? It might have been this morning but I'm pretty sure it was last night–”

“You completed work on it at 4:57 this morning,” JARVIS supplied helpfully.

“–right, this morning then, but that's really not important; what's important is that I finished it and I hope you like it.”

Tony probably would have rambled on more, but he was cut off when he held out the shield to Steve, who took it in his hands and tested the weight and feel of it. Steve grinned and bounced it in his hands, “Wow! Thanks, Tony!”

“Good, well I'm glad you like it that means it wasn't a total waste and I don't have to scrap the entire thing – but there are a couple of adjustments I made and there's an–”

This time, Steve cut Tony off with a kiss.

**FIN.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt:** 02\. follow me  
>  **Words:** 273 words


	8. at the top of my lungs

The only sound over communications is Tony swearing. Then silence. The line dies with a sharp crackle of static.

After that, the only sound that Steve can hear is the sound of blood rushing through his head. He counts the heartbeats as the silence stretches out from seconds into minutes.

There is the sound of blood in his veins, his heart thudding wildly, and the sounds of his feet hitting the ground. Steve hadn't thought he could run this fast, had never thought to try. All he knows is that he needs to reach Tony. He has to find him.

He needs to know he's alive; needs to see him.

In his ear is the sharp blast of noise, Natasha saying something, Thor yelling, and Clint's voice cuts through it all with only a few words.

“Iron Man's gone down two blocks over.”

They are the only words Steve hears and they repeat themselves over and over again in his head.

There is nothing from Tony. His silence is notable. Steve feels the bile in the back of his throat and bites it back.

Tony will be fine. He has to be.

**FIN.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt:** 12\. down  
>  **Words:** 184 words


	9. see your face again

At first, there was the adrenalin pumping through him, with a cold feeling solidifying into a tight ball deep in his gut. All Steve had been able to hear was the sound of his blood rushing through his veins, his heart thundering in his chest, and the sound of his boots hitting the pavement.

Slowly, though, that began to change and the cold changed, turning into daggers of ice that stabbed into his chest as the dread settled in. He hadn't known what he might find.

It was pure chance that Natasha had managed to take out the primary control system of the drones when she did. Even with that, Steve had crushed two against the pavement with his shield before he reached Tony.

The armour was badly dented and almost completely crushed along the right side. That there wasn't any blood was of no relief to Steve; if there was any, the suit had probably contained it. The only thing that was of any comfort to him was the fact that the arc reactor was still glowing a brilliant blue-white.

He collapsed to his knees, pressing a hand to the front of the suit. Nothing.

Prying off the face mask was difficult, but not impossible. It wasn't as easy as Thor made it look, but he managed.

Tony was unconscious with a thin trickle of blood coming from the corner of his mouth. Steve's breath hitched as he spoke into his comm unit, trying to regain even a small amount of equilibrium.

“We're going to need medical ASAP.”

**FIN.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt:** 04\. fear  
>  **Words:** 252 words
> 
> The drabbles following this one are all connected, just so you're aware.


	10. pretend i'm alright

Steve knew that waiting was always the worst part. It wasn't something that anyone could ever get used to. The others were worried too and dealing with their own injuries. Bruce was half-conscious, wrapped up in Thor's cape, and leaning against the Asgardian's side. Natasha was letting Coulson disinfect a cut on her forehead that hadn't quite stopped bleeding. None of them were in good shape.

The one surprising thing was that Steve wasn't the one pacing back and forth, wearing a hole into the floor of the waiting one. Instead, he was sitting in one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs while Clint passed back and forth in front of him and bounced on the balls of his feet; nevermind the fact that one of Clint's wrists was in a splint.

None of them said anything, but they all looked up – and Clint paused in his pacing – whenever someone entered the room. All of them were anxious for news and the wait was killing them.

Steve counted the time by how many passes Clint made and by the steady ticking of the clock on the wall. The noises were all too loud but muffled – like he was listening to them from the end of a long tunnel. His heart was beating sluggishly in his chest and breathing felt difficult; he had to breathe around the lump in his throat.

He was startled by Natasha placing her hand gently over his and squeezing. She offered him a small smile, “He'll pull through.”

He couldn't find the words to reply, so he just nodded. But did feel some of the anxiety lessen with Natasha's quiet presence and support. Steve knew that Tony could pull through this – he was a survivor, it was what they did – but there was always that slim chance that he wouldn't.

But he couldn't think about that; he had to focus on Tony's survival. He'd pull through this; he had to.

**FIN.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt:** 10\. time  
>  **Words:** 322 words


	11. would take a whisper

The hospital room was full of the hum of machines and the steady beeping of the heart monitor. At least the chairs in the actual room were a little more comfortable than the ones out in the waiting room. Steve settled himself down in one at Tony's bedside.

Tony himself was hooked up to so many tubes and machines that Steve didn't know the name of, much less their precise function. Amongst all the machinery and tubing, Tony looked surprisingly small and vulnerable. It was different than the times down in his lab, surrounded by machines with the arc reactor glowing brightly at the centre of his chest.

The arc reactor itself was still a calm and steadying glow, but there was none of that seemingly endless energy coming from Tony. He was too still, too quiet, and Steve found it completely unnerving; he was so used to a Tony who was always talking, the constant noise and blaring music. The quiet was unsettling and unnatural.

Running his hand through his hair, Steve took a small amount of comfort in the fact that at least the arc reactor still had power. The only thing that he could do now was wait and hope and pray that Tony would pull through.

That was the only thing left he had to cling to. There was nothing he could do. Steve had never before felt so powerless.

**FIN.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt:** 11\. power  
>  **Words:** 230 words


	12. all you had to give

Three days without sleep was a long time, even for Steve. But he was still awake and the only times he'd moved from Tony's bedside were when the doctors needed access or if he needed to use the bathroom. The other Avengers stopped by each day, bringing flowers or food or just to sit vigil with Steve.

Oddly enough, Clint was the one who brought flowers every day until every available surface was covered in them. He'd even dropped off a couple of stuffed animals that he picked up either from the gift shop or from some store in town.

Natasha brought food and stood behind Steve's chair, one hand resting on the back of his chair. She said nothing, simply made sure that Steve ate and interrogated the doctors about Tony's condition.

Thor and Bruce always came together. Thor was, surprisingly, very solemn during his visits and said little to nothing while Bruce seemed nervous and unsure what to do with himself.

Despite the others popping it at odd hours and for differing amounts of time, Steve spent most of his time by himself waiting for Tony to wake up. It was a waiting game. He counted the time by the beep of the heart monitor and the routine visits of the doctors and nurses.

What startled him out of the sort of trance he had fallen into was the heart monitor racing just a little, followed by Tony inhaling sharply and groaning. Steve was on his feet and leaning over the bed in a heartbeat.

“You know, I really hate hospitals,” Tony said, voice hoarse and raspy from lack of use. He opened his eyes slowly and it took quite a bit of time for them to focus on Steve. He managed a smile, “They haven't been poking at me for too long, have they?”

Steve laughed, the sound rough and more than a little strangled, “Try three days.”

“Damn,” Tony said, his eyes fluttering closed again. “Really hope I didn't miss anything.”

“I'll tell you about it later.” Steve smiled, reaching for the call button even as he heard the doctors rushing down. He could feel the relief pumping through him, staving off the exhaustion for a little while longer.

He'd sleep soon. Tony was awake now and that was what mattered.

**FIN.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt:** 07\. tell  
>  **Words:** 375 words


	13. echo, echo

“This is completely unnecessary,” Tony grumbled as Steve wheeled him out of the hospital and towards the car. “I could've just walked out.”

“Tony, you can't stand without your knees giving out,” Steve replied evenly. “Would you prefer if I carried you?”

“You could throw me over your shoulder and carry me off to ravish me,” Tony grinned. He leaned back enough in the wheelchair to look up at Steve and catch the light blush on Steve's cheeks and the small flicker of amusement in his very blue eyes.

“That's not going to happen until you're back on your feet.”

Tony grinned, “We'll see about that. I can be... persuasive when I want to be.”

Steve didn't say anything, but he did roll his eyes as he carefully scooped Tony up and out of the wheelchair and settled him down in the car. He did smooth back Tony's hair to kiss his temple before he slid into the car next to him and closed the door.

Tony was just glad to be out of the hospital.

**FIN.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt:** 01\. ocean  
>  **Words:** 170 words


End file.
